Flashes of Sanity #25: Dinner

This is it! We have reached 25 entries in my little challenge. My goal was at least 26 entries. So one more, and then to infinity and beyond. Entry 25 is about a family dinner. Nothing weird at all.

Enjoy!

There is a family in deepest of caves. A mother, a father, one big brother, one middle sister a little brother. They sit around a round table carved from stones of their home. Their skin is red as if the heat from below burned within them. The horns on their heads only matched by the stinger on their tail.
The father yawns from a hard day at work. The mother still has her meetings circulating inside her head. The children fight over all things children fight over.
“Raymond is taking seconds.” The middles sister teases. “He will have to do the dishes.”
“Mooooom.” The little brother whines. “Carol is mean to me.”
The mother looks at her two children with eyes red and white as the hottest fire. She smiles. “Carol be kind to your little brother. And Raymond, you know the rules.”
“The last one to take seconds gets to do the dishes.” The little brother mumbles, he looks down with regret at the plate now refilled with stew. “But I was hungry… Why am I punished?”
“You are not punished Raymond. That’s how we divide the chores in our family.” The mother patted her son between the budding horns.
“I don’t like how we divide chores.” The child mumbled with his mouth full.
The mother pretends to not hear the complaint and turns to her husband. “How was work?” She asks. I hope Helga didn’t take it wrong when I dismissed her lunch request, she thought.
“The pits where awfully crowded today.” Her husband says. “My arm will be sore for the rest of the week. But with the competition from all these cheap imps you must show the boss why they should keep you. Am I right?”
“You are probably right about that.” The mother returns to her plate. There are no problems with the imps, she thought, but you keep ignoring project Automation. You won’t have a job soon, just because you are too lazy to advance.
“How was your day?” The father asks, he reaches for the stew. Three kids observe him with suspense.
“It was okay.” The mother answers. “Some boring meetings. Otherwise nothing much.” One of the meetings just happened to be my future. Her thoughts wander as heavy folders opens themselves before her eyes. All with news her husband didn’t want to hear. “Just boring old meetings.”
“Now it’s dad’s turn to do the dishes!” The little brother screams. “Dad how could you forget?”
“Oh gosh!” The father says. “How stupid I am!” He slaps himself on the forehead between his horns, but underneath his arm a smile plays on his lips. “So stupid. How could you endure to live with someone as stupid as me?”
“I have no idea.” The mother says as she arises from the kitchen table. “No idea at all.”
The children laughed at the father who continued to slap himself on the forehead.
This is a normal day for a family in deepest of caves.